Freedom: It’s too damn simple

Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author.

It is time to end the endless blather about freedom. Freedom is not a philosophical concept or emotional feeling, it’s a mechanical system that can be replicated anywhere. Like any system, it is built on simple, fundamental, and self-evident elements.

To fully understand freedom we must start with nature where all human beings come from. Discovering how nature works has been our pursuit from the beginning. Over time, though, the accumulation of knowledge has obscured the foundations.

Most have heard the statement, “There is no waste in nature.” It is a fundamental part of the modern environmental movement. Accepting no waste in nature leads to the question, “What is the mechanism that drives it out?” Competition drives out waste. No waste in nature means nature is a perfect competitive system.

We now have two elements of nature’s foundation: competition and waste. What everyone has missed is that competition and waste are inextricably connected like opposite ends of a seesaw. When competition goes up, waste goes down, and vice versa.

The last element in the operation of nature is ease: everything moves to ease. A simple example is the familiar sign in all of our national parks: “Do not feed the animals.” If we feed animals they will stop feeding themselves and become dependent.

Humans separate themselves from other animals due to our large brains. Over time, this led to the creation of two systems unique to humankind – the marketplace and government. The same foundations found in nature can be applied to both.

The marketplace is where all voluntary human interactions take place. It wasn’t invented, it developed naturally because trade made our lives easier. “I’ll hunt if you cook” is a simple example. As time passed, the informal marketplace gave rise to the formal marketplace of business. Business would not exist unless it made people’s lives easier.

The marketplace operates like nature. Competition eliminates waste and everything moves towards ease. Both are competitive systems.

Government is different.

As people formed groups to escape the arbitrary power of nature and make life easier, they naturally began to make rules. Any time humans form a group, rules soon follow. As tribes became bigger and more complex so did their rules, leading to the invention of formal government. It makes no sense to have two, three, or more governments.

Since there is only one government it is by definition a non-competitive system.

In the marketplace, waste is continually eliminated. Imagine running Saturday errands. We don’t plan our trip to make it as difficult as possible, we do the opposite. We plan what is easiest, thus eliminating waste.

In the formal marketplace, companies are continually eliminating waste because if they don’t, they have no profits. Without profits, businesses go out of business, and are “culled from the herd.”

The government’s job is to make and enforce laws, rules, and regulations. Government regulations almost always say “No you can’t,” as opposed to “Yes you can.” Laws once written are virtually permanent. Laws don’t go away, they accumulate. The government can’t go out of business. Left on its own, the government grows, accumulates waste, and becomes arbitrary and despotic.

The tool humans invented to prevent government growth is a strong constitution. The purpose of good constitutions is to keep government limited.

We only go around once in life. In a “system of freedom,” the goal is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To achieve this goal we need to understand the purpose of our two great systems.

The marketplace is meant to produce goods and services. Because it is a competitive system, it eliminates waste, leading to prosperity.

The government is meant for law and order. Because government is a non-competitive system, waste is a feature, not an exception. To limit waste, the government must be kept limited. No matter what the government promises, it cannot create prosperity.

Humans need both the marketplace and the government. We need to know their strengths and weaknesses. A failure to do so, by treating both as interchangeable, wrecks a “system of freedom.” At the end of the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin warned of this, saying of the new republic to a bystander, “If you can keep it.”

In the final analysis, freedom is ours to keep or destroy. Understanding how a “system of freedom” works is essential for keeping it.

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